I need help deciding which bag would be best for competition. I have tried several things in the past but this year between my three girls, we have 14 costumes, including hair accessories, wigs, 10 pairs of shoes (including 2 pair of combat boots), makeup, etc.

I have looked at all the brands of dance bags. I was thinking of making the bags using 3 rolling duffels (38" high x 14" wide x 15.5" deep). They are collapsible and would probably fit into the SUV easier.

Any recommendations on this or should I just use one really large pack 2 rack or rolling star, etc?

I bought my DD the Large RacnRoll and we both find it very easy to setup and it holds quite a bit. Last comp season she had 5 costumes (all in individual garment bags), two shoe box size binss for the extras, makeup large bags (2), a fold-up chair and a blanket and she still had room for more stuff. I did compare the dream duffel, racnroll and the pack2rack...all three are very similar, ended up with racnroll because I manage to get it on sale, but I definitely do not regret it. I had an issue with one of the bars staying up and I contacted them to see what they could do about it and they sent me a replacement bar immediately...no questions asked (great customer service!).

I am a Pack2Rack girl! I loved all the extra options it gave me- taller sturdier rack, size of the bag, accessory pockets in the zipper flap, white bottom, choice of color, full length mirror(extra accessory but worth it!) PRICE!

Make it! So much cheaper, especially if you need three! I used rolling duffels and PVC piping -- here's someone else's details that I found. My DD's are exactly the same, only I added a second layer in the shape of the base around the top of the bag as well. I found it kept the bags from collapsing, gave more protection to the costumes, and made the rack sturdier when it was set up. Good luck

I bought a Dream Duffle (finally) last year and have been very happy with the purchase. So much easier to load in and out of the car and tote around. I have no complaints. I also have a few friends who made their own and swear that is the way to go. They bought large duffles on sale from LL Bean and installed PVC pipe from Home Depot to make a pull up rack just like the more expensive dance bags. They said it was easy, cost effective, and holding up well.

I didn't attempt this as I am not handy this way and didn't feel up to the task. Very happy with Dream Duffle. Another friend as Rack and ROll and very happy too.

I used to try to keep my girls together on the same rack. What a nightmare. Now I only had two dancing mind you. Best thing I ever did was buy two dream duffels. We never put our shoes in the dream duffel. As long as you know all three will keep dancing I would probably get a large dream duffel and a medium.

I decided against buying a dedicated dance duffel for my DD8 last year and instead my DH made her that PVC rack and we used an existing suitcase she had. Worked really well. This year I still didn't feel like buying a dedicated bag so I bought her a new 25" wheeled suitcase that has a better opening and better inside straps to secure the PVC rack, plus it has pockets on the outside for her makeup bag and her hair bag. She only has 4 costumes for comp so I think this new suitcase will work fine. Plus it's a cool leopard print with a hot pink interior! We built our rack just like the one linked but instead of using the L joints on the top bar we used T joints then added small elbows pointing up to the end of the T (the rack looks like it has horns) - by adding those it gave us an extra spot to hang her team jacket or makeup bag without having to put them on the main rack area with the costumes. She loves the PVC rack because she was able to customize it with patterned Duck Tape.

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